Seven years ago, Chennai Metro brought in traffic diversions before starting the tunnelling work to build the underground network and construct underground stations. In February this year, the entire phase I project came to an end as the last stretch from AG-DMS to Washermanpet via Anna Salai was opened to the public. For a few months now, Chennai Metro has been in the process of building the last of the four entry/exit points for the Government Estate station and completing other ancillary works.
They have now also begun raising pillars on the stretch near the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital and there will be a new boundary wall for the hospital beyond which the road will begin. It seems like the original width of the road before the construction began may not be retained after all, and the width may shrink.
Sources in the Highways Department said it had always been ensuring that the width of the road was not reduced due to Metro work. In this case too, certain changes in design of the entry/exit points near Ritchie Street have been suggested to ensure that the carriageway is 11 m on either side.
However, a little over one metre has been lost for a short stretch at that point, the source said.
But CMRL officials denied that and said the road width would not be altered and that its orginal size, 29 m, would be restored.
‘Will restore width’
“Now the road width has been reduced to 20 m, with 10 m on each side because we need space for construction. We took some land from the Tamil Nadu MultiSpeciality Hospital temporarily for carrying out construction and that will be given back. But soon, we will restore it to its original size. The width certainly won’t be minimized one bit,” an official said.
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